Pitcher’s Dockyard at Northfleet

This painting shows the launching of a naval warship at Thomas Pitcher’s shipyard in Northfleet, near Gravesend, as seen from the River Thames. The left-hand side of the picture features various ships in different stages of construction and repair, including the ship being launched, which is on the ways and flying launching flags (the white ensign, the union flag, the Royal Standard and the Admiralty flag). The inscription on the stern of the vessel identifies it as the ‘Ardent’, a 64-gun third-rate which was launched at Northfleet on 9 April 1796. This ship was originally designed and laid down for the East India Company under the name ‘Princess Royal’, before being purchased on the stocks by the Admiralty and renamed. The right-hand side of the painting shows buildings of the shipyard. White cliffs are visible in the distance with a church tower, probably that of St Botolph’s, Northfleet, on the far right. There are several vessels on the river in the foreground, including a Thames wherry on the left. The painting is signed and dated ‘W. Dixon, 1796’ on a piece of driftwood in the lower right corner.

The shipyard at Northfleet, near Gravesend was established by Robert Todd and Thomas Pitcher in 1788. The location was chosen because it was one of the few areas downriver of London that was not marshland. Originally, the land sloped down to the river, but centuries of quarrying to extract chalk for lime mortar and ship’s ballast created the white cliffs visible in the background of the painting. The first ship built by Todd and Pitcher at Northfleet was an East Indiaman, the Royal Charlotte, launched on 2 November 1789. Further commissions for building and repairing ships came from the East India Company followed, as did a smaller number from the Royal Navy.

On 12 September 1792, Todd and Pitcher dissolved their partnership. The latter bought out the former’s share, becoming the sole owner of the yard. Published in 1798, Pocock’s Gravesend Water Companion – a guide to the Thames from London Bridge to Gravesend – described Pitcher’s yard as having ‘a spacious dock for 6 or 7 large ships cut out of the solid chalk’.

Private shipyards were apparently a subject of interest for the artist, Dixon, who lived in Thameside addresses at Rotherhithe and Limehouse during the 1790s. In 1796, he exhibited a painting entitled ‘View of Mr Perry’s Yard, Blackwall’ at the Royal Academy. This painting is now in the Museum’s collection (BHC1865). It is similar to the Northfleet painting: both pictures show the launch of Royal Navy ships at private shipyards on the Thames, adopting a viewpoint low on the water and paying close attention to the specialised buildings of the yards and to the different stages of vessel construction.

The Northfleet painting appears to have been commissioned by Thomas Pitcher himself and descended through his family, while the Blackwall painting came to the Museum via descendants to the Green family of shipbuilders, who were partners in Perry’s yard at Blackwall. These respective provenances invite consideration of the cultural and artistic patronage of shipbuilding families. Arguably, both the Greens and the Pitchers were using art to promote their work and their contributions of the nation.